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Photos: Oliver Todd
Halifax College ran out comfortable winners in an entertaining fixture on Sunday morning.
Despite the clear sky and prominent sun, the temperature remained very cold throughout the match, hardening the pitch and often slowing play down. The encounter itself didn’t start slowly, however. Goodricke kicked off but immediately lost the ball to Frazer Moyle, who charged through the defence and shot narrowly wide from twenty yards after just nine seconds.
It was a sign of things to come for Goodricke, who were again on the back foot moments later. Connor Meckin went close on the right wing with a prod wide of the post after some lovely build up, and then forced a decent save from Foster in the Goodricke goal.
From the resulting corner, the men in green broke away and won a set piece of their own; a free kick a few yards to the left of the penalty area. Halifax remained level, however, as Joe Mann nudged Sam Lewis’ delivery straight at the goalkeeper.
It wasn’t totally straightforward for the favourites, as their defence were pressured into a few errors; the first of which being a wayward ball from Hamid Darezoo gifting possession to Goodricke, who failed to make the most of the opportunity.
As time ticked on and the tackles came crunching in, the referee awarded a free kick to Halifax in a dangerous position after a few shoves just outside the box resulted in Tom Day collapsing theatrically.
Day took the responsibility himself and blasted a magnificent strike against the crossbar. Flapping at the swerving ball, Foster could only watch the bar shake after Day’s sweet connection was only a few millimetres away from giving Halifax a deserved lead.
But the side in blue and white did go one up just before the break. Luke Stevenson curled the ball into the six yard box from the right flank, and a gorgeous flick-on from Jake Mundy left Connor Meckin to help himself with a tap in at the far post. It was a fair representation of the team’s performance and Goodricke went in at half time looking to change things around.
Goodricke came out with all guns blazing after the restart and straight away looked more threatening. Sam Lewis in the middle of the park tried an audacious blast from thirty yards as the ball whistled off the underside of the bar. Goodricke called half-heartedly for a goal but the referee rightly waved play on, and Halifax survived the scare.
Lewis again was involved ten minutes later when his perseverance down the right hand side made space to drill in a cross for Joe Mann. The striker caught the ball exceptionally wel lfrom deep inside the box and just as everyone anticipated the net to ripple with the equaliser; the Halifax ‘keeper stuck out an arm and made a superb stop.
And that save proved vital as Halifax went on to claim a second goal as the match neared an end. After a defensive substitution saw Kershaw take the role of holding midfielder, Tom Day pushed forward. The technically-gifted footballer saw his dink into the box cause confusion in the opposition’s defence, and Fagan agonisingly bundled the ball past his goalkeeper to seal Goodricke’s fate.
The referee drew the game to aclose and Christian Hammer, the Goodricke captain, was still upbeat despite defeat: “It was a tough match; they [Halifax] were difficult to break down. We had players missing and I don’t think they were a full strength side either, but it was a spirited performance from the lads.”
Jack Beadle, who captained Halifax to maximum points in their first game this term, said he was “delighted” with the result, and looked to take this form into the College Cup.
Vision MOTM: Tom Day
come on the ‘fax!
The second Halifax goal was a shot from Hamish Denham which the goodricke keeper blocked with his legs but the ball rolled over the line before the defender Fagan tried to clear it.